Comments

Anonymous

Family planning doesn’t encourage abortions. When people plan for a family, this prevents unwanted pregnancies. If these politicians are so concerned about preventing abortions due to unwanted pregnancies, are these same politicians going to provide financial assistance to single women & married couples

owlvee

Regardless of your view of abortion, it is smart to finance Planned Parenthood. There will be fewer unplanned pregnancies and fewer abortions.

Katy

Family planning is a win for many, parents, other siblings, housing, schools, and society. We don’t need more unwanted children; we need wanted children who will be given the basis needs of life. Family planning is NOT abortion promotion.

Sam and Stephanie

Access to family planning is an investment in America’s future. It is a human right, regardless of an individual or family’s income status. In a supposedly developed nation, it is beyond comprehension that this is an issue that is being politicized and debated.

D. Middleton

I am completely outraged tonight watching ‘Need To Know”. The policies in Texas are unfair to women and positively misleading. I noticed that not one person explained just what a”Crisis Pregnancy Center” really was – or what they do. The first two points were readily explained – including Autistic programs; but after seeing it listed I didn’t hear one person talk about these centers. They are well-funded and exist in just about every state; largely by anti-choice organizations and now, sadly, by legislative bodies. In New Mexico we have learned (and witnessed) these centers mislead all women of child-bearing age – not only discouraging abortion as a CHOICE; but actually give false information, sometimes telling the ‘patient’ that she is further along in the pregnancy than she actually is – so she cannot have a choice. There are no medical personnel on duty in a majority of these “Centers” (notice they never have the word Clinic in their advertising or on their signs). New York City, San Francisco, Baltimore, and even Austin have attempted to require these “Centers” to have signage saying specifically what they do but have been unsuccessful so far. The blatant lies that the Legislator (Pro-Life? Is money really going to go to the babies and children that need it?) said in regards to what Planned Parenthood does are unacceptable – it is ALWAYS part of the discussion with a pregnant woman that adoption is an option, as is taking time to even consider an abortion. It is insulting to all the people; men and women who work for Planned Parenthood throughout this country who respect women – whatever their choice may be about pregnancy. This is partly what the election was about in November – with religious beliefs judging and attempting to control women and their choices.

But hey, I was at least pleased to see “Our Bodies, Ourselves” have a nice profile and a worthwhile, truthful interview. Now to do the work and expose “Crisis Pregnancy Centers!”

MdMonahan

I believe that consenting adults should be responsible for their own sexuality. Victims of crime should have full community support. The ignorant or naive should have to live with rather than be protected from the consequences of their behavior.

Maggie

It seems to me that women’s rights are eroding back to past practices. It seems so unAmerican to me that special interest groups continue to try to dictate to a large
number of women the kind of care they do or do not need. Is that not the decision of each individual woman’s situation? If a woman does not need or agree with family planning care, no one forces them to accept it. Why should we make other women who have other needs accept declining services and information? I also find that legislation and congressional moves that specifically affect women and their families should be presented up front to voters and press rather than hidden behind cost-cutting and redistributed money.

Harry White

The “Pro-Abortion”(brutal dis-membering murder of our most defenceless) is wrong. The pro-abortion camp should describe their aborturaries/movement properly – “End To Parenting” would be closer to the truth. Those who promote these practices are no different than the mad scientists of Nazi Germany in WW I & II. Funding for abortions should be eliminated completely – their facilities closed. Women’s health is a misnomer for convenient sex selection/murder, as in China and other countries. How does the child feel as his “health” is ended? Greatest criminal acts of all time.

darden313

Ignorance is bliss, knowledge is power and the lack of care for poor women is not unusal when men control legislatures and make laws without understanding or knowledge of women’s bodies. It is a shameful disgrace in modern times we are dealing with ignorant white males with hidden agendas and lack of concern for the people in the state and will actually over time create more problems.

Thxbutnothx

Read the following from a Washington Times article:
“But if you want to understand how big a role abortion plays in Planned Parenthood’s care of pregnant women, just read its fine print. According to a “fact sheet” detailing its “services” for 2009, affiliates performed 332,278 abortions, saw 7,021 prenatal clients and made 977 adoption referrals. That means for 97.6 percent of its 340,276 pregnant clients, abortion was Planned Parenthood’s provided “service.”
Relying on financial and service data provided by Planned Parenthood and an average cost of abortion provided by the Guttmacher Institute – a former official affiliate of Planned Parenthood – a conservative estimate would find abortion accounting for 37 percent of Planned Parenthood’s health care center income in 2009. That is a far cry from the “3 percent of services” claimed by Planned Parenthood and its supporters.

1. The Washington Times is hardly neutral or respectable media. 2. Planned Parenthood exists for reproductive health & family planning. They are NOT obstetricians or adoption agencies. Women can and do self-refer to those services. 3. 3% of services refers to the # of services provided to women in need, not the % of income it provides. Obviously a $350 abortion brings in more money than a $35 STD check, but if gov’t succeeds in shutting down Planned Parenthood, the other 97% of services will be gone too. Goodbye prevention, hello STDs & unwanted pregnancies.

http://twitter.com/KaylaWildflower @KaylaWildflower

As a Jew I’m disgusted by even your suggestion that vacuum extraction of a first trimester fetus can even approach the horrors of torturous medical experimentation on live human beings. Do you realize that the fetus isn’t even large enough to be FOUND to DO an abortion til the 3rd month?

http://twitter.com/KaylaWildflower @KaylaWildflower

Right, no-one corrected this mis-statement that adoption is not presented as an option at Planned Parenthood.

trained eye

Planned Parenthood does NO mammograms. They have NO structure set up to do any. They don’t even employ anyone certified to do any. Everyone who takes the time will see this fact. The entire staff is trained to lead women toward abortion.

StoicOne

I have no problem with Planned Parenthood doing whatever it legally does. what i have a problem with is tax dollars. Is PP a private entity or not? If it is private then get private funding..have all those evil rich people fund PP and take a tax deduction.
There is far to much govt meddling in health care now; it needs to decrease.

twitter@jrmaggs

Women must vote out tea party republicans from all states & federal government.

Lisa

Abortion is not healthcare. I am a black woman and appalled that we have a larger percentage of the abortions even though we are a smaller percentage of the population. It is Black Genocide and should be stopped!

Lisa

Abortion (Family Planning) IS abortion promotion especially in the Black community. Plain and simple it IS BLACK GENOCIDE. Look at the percentages and why Margaret Sanger started it and targeted it.

bettynnoel

The Texas Ideologues did not balance the budget in 2011. They took Texas’ Medicaid and moved it to a new pot and in defiance to the Affordable Health Care law, have refused Medicaid money from the Feds, partly because of this idiotic idea of secession. And then they went a step further and took the funds for womens health and disguised it as a different health priority to avoid Planned Parenhood. In addition, they further destroyed education. They are a shameful majority.

Lisa

Women must vote for the right thing and that is NOT Planned Parenthood! Blacks are 20% of the population in Georgia and 60% of the Abortions. That is BLACK GENOCIDE no matter how you try to justify it!

bettynnoel

Well stated,darden313.

Lisa

Black Babies are an Endangered Species. Blacks are 20% of the population in Georgia and 60% of the Abortions. Margaret Sanger targeted the black community to accomplish her goal of race purification. Abortion is NOT healthcare!

simonsfriend

Enough already. Saying something over and over does not make it more impressive.

http://www.facebook.com/kittencross Kitty Cross

Abortion is health care. Because if a woman is going to die because of the fetus growing inside of her, then she needs an abortion. If a woman is raped by her father and wants an abortion, then she freakin’ gets one. Black Genocide? Its the BLACK woman making the choice. Its HER body. Unless you live her life, shut your mouth.

StoicOne

You want PP to exit? Get private funding; PP is not a govt imperative.

Lisa

I do live her life. Abortion was and is marketed more heavily in the Black community. Healthcare is taking care of the health of the mother and the child. You need to get educated. Do the research!

Lisa

It needs to be said over and over again for you to understand the meaning of healthcare. Margaret Sanger started Planned Parenthood to eliminate the Black Race and anyone she felt was unfit. Where are their clinics mainly located? In the minority communities. In undercover footage money was received for abortions of which babies? The black babies. Our beautiful Black Babies are an Endangered Species! Knowledge leads to life. http://www.blackgenocide.org/sanger.htm

Aussie Brian

If women don’t want the decisions being made about them in the corridors of power, you vote those people out of office. Simple. A lot of those politicians are in it to represent their own view and a small sectional interest and not for the overall public good. It happens here in Australia and it appears to be quite polarised in the US. You face a fiscal cliff of which no one want to compromise. You face a social health policy on which nobody wants to make any compromise on. I don’t envy you at the moment.

From your last statement, I can only assume that you have adequate health insurance and access to quality healthcare.

Planned Parenthood is a contractor, much like the thousands of government contractors used for all sorts of services, from healthcare to cooking military meals, waste cleanup to reclaiming salt marshes. Government funding pays for essential services that our country needs without the government having to create from scratch an entire service structure.

Like it or not, women and the families that depend on them need medical services for cancer screenings, mammographies, diabetes, high blood pressure, birth control, etc. To deny mostly poor or uninsured women the care they need and deserve does them a disservice that can be measured in lives lost. Women deserve healthcare that takes into account their reproductive health. Family planning is all about making women’s lives better.

If you are looking at this from a pro-life standpoint, keeping women healthy and alive is pro-life.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=588707994 Ellie Hampton

PPH doesn’t “do” mammograms, they do, however, provide referrals for a mammogram at a licensed facility…anyway that’s what they do in Idaho. All services provided have a small copay unless the patient is destitute. AND adoption, parenting and abortion counseling are provided to those who are looking at having an abortion.

Karen

Correct, in addition, if you’re pro-life then helping women with birth control will also reduce the number of abortions performed.

Karen

In other words, PPH provides comprehensive healthcare. Cutting funding to PPH is shortsighted since all healthcare clinics are overwhelmed which means thousands more uninsured going to emergency rooms, more people walking around exposing the rest of us to their communicable diseases, a lot more abortions & more children born to women who can’t provide for them. These politicians that cut funding to PPH are the same politicians who throw a gigantic temper tantrum about all the women having children they can’t provide for & therefore, are on welfare & food stamps.

Georgia

Contraception and abortion is not a right that government should provide. Grow up! We don’t need a government that is a nanny state. We don’t need to reward illegal immigrants and any other citizen with benefits for having children. There needs to be required abstinence education in schools. Poverty will not go away until there is a revival of biblical values. A committed one man one woman marriage should be the standard societal unit to care for each other. Government cannot take the place of family to sove individuals’ problems.

wendy

I believe in women’s choice in abortion, however when I was young abortion was illegal. I abstained to prevent getting pregnant. I think young women have to take more responsibility for not getting pregnant. Women should take more resonsibilty and not expect the government to take care of their mistakes. I don’t want my tax dollars used for careless young women.

patrickhenry

Defund PBS!!!

http://twitter.com/cali_chef Cali

Ummm. Actually, I had an abortion to keep from dying, and so have millions upon millions of other women! Ever hear of tubal pregnancy? If the woman has a fetus growing in her fallopian tube and doesn’t have an abortion SHE WILL DIE. You should spend less time whining about the abortion rate of blacks and MORE time educating yourself at websites that don’t make up their “facts” and terms like the anti-choice crowd is so fond of doing. Lies for Jesus are STILL lies!

mike_canada

One idea that’s fallen by the wayside is the concept of Zero Population Growth. We simply have more people than our planet can support, and our rate of growth is unsustainable. Sooner or later we as a species will have to address this problem, or perish. It’s not just a question of food and water and resources; reducing the world’s population growth would help a lot in solving a number of environmental crises such as global warming. We don’t necessarily have to have a coercive law such as China’s one-child policy; levelling off population growth could be achived through a number of measures such as public awareness, tax policy, foreign aid policy. Sensible and informed family planning can help to raise awareness of global overpopulation.

Need to Know is a production of Creative News Group (CNG) in association with WNET. Marc Rosenwasser is Executive Producer. Need to Know is made possible by Bernard and Irene Schwartz, Mutual of America, Citi Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Foundation, Margaret A. Cargill Foundation, The Corporation for Public Broadcasting and PBS.